Hurricanes score 3 straight, rally past Maple Leafs for 4th win in row

TORONTO -- Logan Stankoven broke a tie at 12:13 of the third period, and the Carolina Hurricanes rallied with three straight goals to defeat the Toronto Maple Leafs 5-4 at Scotiabank Arena on Sunday.

Toronto defenseman Jake McCabe turned the puck over to Nikolaj Ehlers, who found K'Andre Miller in the slot. Miller then slid a short pass to Stankoven for a shot from the left face-off dot for the go-ahead goal for the Hurricanes.

“We knew we were playing pretty well,” Carolina coach Rod Brind’Amour said. “We were getting opportunities. Second period we had a few breakaways, off the post a few times. It was right there. We had a couple mistakes where we left their better players alone, which you can’t do, and they were little tap-ins, but aside from that, I thought we played a solid, solid game.”

Sebastian Aho, Seth Jarvis, Sean Walker and Taylor Hall scored, and Brandon Bussi made 16 saves for the Hurricanes (11-4-0), who have won four in a row.

William Nylander scored twice, and Auston Matthews and John Tavares each had a goal and an assist for the Maple Leafs (8-7-1), who have lost two in a row. Dennis Hildeby made 42 saves.

“Could be immaturity, not a willingness to make the easy play,” Toronto coach Craig Berube said. “Turnover after turnover cost us the game tonight. We didn’t check anybody tonight, we didn’t win any battles tonight. That’s two games in a row.”

Walker brought Carolina to within 4-3 at 16:51 of the second period when he shot past Hildeby’s blocker from the blue line.

Hall tied it 4-4 at 3:20 of the third period, driving to the net and chopping the rebound of Jackson Blake’s shot past Hildeby’s left pad. The play began when Philippe Myers, and then Nylander, were unable to clear the puck, with Joel Nystrom ultimately keeping it in at the blue line and sending it behind the net, leading to Blake’s initial shot.

“We are a forechecking team, but I just think we work and we have structure within that forechecking system that allows you to make reads here and there, but it’s really about effort,” Hall said.

The Hurricanes outshot the Maple Leafs 22-2 in the third period.

“We were really able to establish our forecheck,” Jarvis said. “When they struggle getting pucks out of the zone, that feeds into our play. We were doing a good job staying above it, creating turnovers like you saw on Stankoven’s goal … Just being able to keep pressure on them, make them either high flip it out or struggle to get the puck out, that’s what our game thrives on.”

Nylander put the Maple Leafs ahead 1-0 at 5:00 of the first period when he took a pass from Matthew Knies in the slot and made a backhand deke past a sprawling Bussi.

Aho tied it 1-1 at 8:34, one-timing a pass from Ehlers from the right dot on the power play.

Jarvis put the Hurricanes in front 2-1 at 14:31, taking a pass from Andrei Svechnikov in the slot and and scoring glove side.

Tavares, who was playing his 1,200th NHL game, tied it 2-2 at 15:31. After his initial shot on the rush was stopped, Bussi made another save on Nicholas Robertson. But on the ensuing rebound, Bobby McMann got to the loose puck and fed Tavares at the top of the crease, where he put it into an open net.

Nylander gave the Maple Leafs a 3-2 lead at 19:01 of the first period with a one-timer from the left face-off dot off a pass from Tavares on the power play.

Matthews stretched the lead to 4-2 at 11:03 of the second period when he took a pass from McCabe at the side of the net and jammed it in with Bussi out of position.

“We were fortunate to have a lead after two,” Matthews said. “If it wasn’t for [Hildeby], three, four breakaways there we gave up he made big saves. Just details. We didn’t win enough puck battles, and just the repetitive stuff we can’t seem to get right or have a consistency over a full 60 minutes. There will be times where there is momentum shifts, but you have to break that momentum as quickly as possible and get back on the right side of things. We’re not doing that quick enough.”

NOTES: Hurricanes defenseman Charles Alexis Legault left the game at the end of the first period after his arm appeared to be cut during a scrum along the boards. “He went to the hospital,” Brind’Amour said. “I think he’s coming back with us, so that part is good. It’s not a good injury though from what I’m hearing, so I don’t want to say too much because I don’t know, but that’s tough to see. I don’t know what happened. All of a sudden he was just bleeding profusely and that doesn’t look good… He’ll have to get looked at tomorrow.” … Nylander extended his personal point streak to 10 games (seven goals, 12 assists) and has at least one point in 12 of the 13 games he has played this season. … Maple Leafs defenseman Morgan Rielly extended his point streak to five games (seven assists).